Several documents attest to the existence of a Charles-François Coron, organist, tailor, royal notary, and resident at Montreal, at Saint-François-de-Sales, and at Detroit. The difficulty of identifying the Charles-François Coron whose name appears in the available documents has led several historians into error; Cyprien Tanguay*, for instance, did not suspect the existence of more than one person of the same name.

The Sulpician archives at Montreal contain a reference to a Charles-François Coron who apparently held the post of organist at Notre-Dame church from 1722 to 1734. According to these documents, Coron received 83 livres 15 sols for 20 months’ work. In 1725 and 1726 the organist’s salary was a “hooded coat” and a “jacket from Mazamet” valued at 45 livres, and in 1727 he could choose between 45 livres in money or 50 livres in merchandise.

Other documents, dated 1728 and 1729, mention a Charles-François Coron, “master tailor,” who is said to have bought a property, bordering on Notre-Dame square, Montreal, on which he built a house. Moreover, a marriage contract, signed on 27 Dec. 1730, between Charles-François Coron and Angélique-Françoise Roland clearly indicates that the husband is a “master tailor” and son of the royal notary François Coron and Marie Cyr. This tailor seems to have been the person who drew up, on 20 Jan. 1734, his first act as a notary, thus following in the steps of his father who practised this profession at Saint-François-de-Sales until his death in 1733. Charles-François Coron did not succeed his father at once: the documents give the immediate succession to Jean-Baptiste Dufresne. However, on 20 Sept. 1735 the intendant Hocquart* gave Coron a commission as royal notary and clerk of the court “for the whole of Île-Jésus and also the rest of the northern parts of the government of Montreal, including the parish [Saint-Joseph-] de la Rivière-des-Prairies.” A new commission, 23 June 1740, permitted him to practise in the whole of the government of Montreal, except for the town and its suburbs. After the surrender of Montreal, Coron was one of the first notaries to have his commission renewed by the military governor, Thomas Gage*, on 1 Oct. 1760, and he practised until 9 Feb. 1767. In March 1767, Antoine Foucher replaced the late Charles-François Coron as notary.

Coron had married Angélique-Françoise Roland in Montreal on 8 Jan. 1731; they seem to have had four children, but we know only a daughter, Victoire, who in January 1768 married Pierre Jendon. However, Tanguay, in his Dictionnaire, mentions the marriage of this Charles-François Coron in Detroit on 24 Oct. 1757 to Marie-Louise Binot; he is given as the “son of the late Charles-François Coron and the late Marie Cyr.” Our man would then be a bigamist and ubiquitous, since Angélique-Françoise died only in 1768, and since on the same day in 1757 the notary Coron was recording an act in his office on Île Jésus while the bridegroom in Detroit declared himself unable to sign the parish marriage register.

Are the organist, the tailor, and the notary the same person? The spelling in a document in the organist’s hand, dated 1729, is poor, which is not true for the acts of the notary. There seems to be no doubt that the tailor and the notary are the same person, but it is difficult to make a positive identification of this person with the organist. It is quite possible that the Charles-François Coron of Detroit simply had the same name as the notary of Île-Jésus, and that the former was the youngest son of Francois Coron and the latter was the oldest.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Nous reconnaissons l’appui du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.